eLong Launches Cellphone Booking Service

eLong Inc (NASDAQ: LONG), China's second largest online travel service provider by market share, said Monday that it has started offering booking service through cellphones to rival Ctrip.com International (NASDAQ: CTRP) that launched the same service in April. eLong last week acquired two online hotel booking websites, Sunnychina.com and Sinohotel.com, without disclosing how much they paid, and posted ¥108 million ($1 = ¥6.8) in revenue and ¥6 million in net profit for the first three months of the year, up 30% and 195% year-on-year respectively. eLong now has partnerships with 11,200 hotels and inns, surpassing Ctrip as the nation's number one in this reguard.